


Separation

by Nanyoky



Category: Henry V - Shakespeare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, F/M, Ghosts, Single Parents, Widowed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 13:26:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11037093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nanyoky/pseuds/Nanyoky
Summary: Haunting can be a comfort.





	Separation

**Author's Note:**

> Another old one-off from a meme prompt!

Katherine filled the sink with hot water and set to work scraping the remains of Henry's breakfast into the trash. She could hear the boy playing in his room, even through the door.

"It was so much easier when you were here." She scrubbed savagely at the dishes in the sink.

"Didn't know I was such a good husband."

She was in no mood for his half-hearted jokes today. She shouldn't bring it up. But she had been feeling angry at him for the past week and so she let it out.

"Henry's old enough to notice he doesn't have a father."

There was a pause. "He has a father."

"Yes, well, you're gone. He doesn't have any memories of you. He's realizing that other kids at school have two parents and he just has one." She shivered at the draft. "Don't be that way. I'm only saying I wish I wasn't the one having to do this alone."

"I didn't exactly choose to go, did I?"

"And that's why we're still talking." She chipped off a bit of petrified egg yolk from Henry's breakfast with a spatula. He didn't respond for another minute. "Harry?"

"Do you want me gone completely?"

Her spine felt cold and she knew it wasn't his mood. Even if he were alive, she would have reacted the same way.

"Don't be dramatic. I didn't say that."

"I don't like this. I never liked being useless."

"You're not useless, you're-" she didn't know what she was trying to say, so she stopped.

A plate in the cupboard clattered away from its fellows to smash on the floor.

"Harry!"

He took a breath and the draft was warmer on her neck.

"I'm-" she let him take his time with the apology. He'd never learned to say it properly when he did or said something he hadn't meant to. Sometimes she still wondered what the real reason he apologized for. For doing something wrong, or for doing something he hadn't planned. "I'm sorry. I can't-"

"I know," she gave up on the dishes and turned leaning against the counter. "If you went..."

"You'd be able to move on."

"Yes. But after I mourned you again. Just as much as the first time."

He was quiet again and she wondered if it was the wrong thing to say. If she stared at the empty chair at the breakfast table, she could almost make herself see his bright eyes blinking back at her. Reproachful? Angry? His genuine feelings were harder to read when he was serious, and now virtually impossible.

"You would?"

"Of course." Katherine wasn't sure she wanted to be looking directly at where he may or may not be, so she turned back to the dishes. "Just- if you're planning on figuring out how to move on, just wait until I can send Henry to summer camp or something. He shouldn't have to be around for that."

The kitchen was quiet and the air was still once more. Katherine looked over her shoulder out of habit.

"Harry?"


End file.
